April 6th 2007
- Good Friday
The worship space tonight was altarless, draped with black.
Pastor Mark led this Good Friday service, comprised of gospel readings, silences reflections and hymns. Mark and Dena traded as gospel readers. The service’s dark atmosphere took us to the heart of the passion story.
The choir reprieved Jesus, Refuge of the Weary that was sung for Palm Sunday. It provided an interesting link between the two services. Kelly directed this evening’s performance to a different sense of the music and words.
On Palm Sunday the devotional side of this piece was an emphasis. This evening’s performance the gravity went toward the dramatic understanding of God’s will revealed and communicated. There is melancholy in Geoff’s viola solo performance that certainly moved us on Palm Sunday. Tonight, as I looked to Geoff during the performance, a red spotlight reflected off the viola. The glow was astounding. It visually underlined a new sense of the solo as Geoff played it.
Here, suddenly, was the burning, eternal love of God, infused with the music and the voices. The solo was guiding, supporting and leading the performance in a way I did not recognize during the Palm Sunday service.
There are times when there is a strong, almost sentimental aspect to Good Friday and the suffering of Jesus. It comes from the familiar words of the gospels and the familiar hymns. We did sing familiar hymns, Were You There, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, and O Sacred Head, Now Wounded but I did not feel the usual sentiment. This Holy Week changed my perspective, at least, perhaps it changed others' perspectives as well.
During the reverence of the cross my thoughts moved more toward my Christian identity and what, through the events of Good Friday and Easter, who we are all called to become. In reading The Last Week that I mentioned in an earlier entry, the authors point out how the gospel of Mark stressed failed discipleship continually. This thought haunted me when I approached the cross during the service.
Finally, at the end of the service, the waning light obscured the faces of the congregation. I couldn’t read the music in front of me at the end of the service. We sung Were You There a cappella, and said the Lord’s Prayer. Once again, we departed in silence and this time in darkness.
Some choir members practiced a piece for tomorrow’s Easter Vigil after the service. It appeared that everyone had left while we were in the sanctuary but when we finished practicing and walked out of the church I couldn’t believe how many of those who attended this service were still in the parking lot, deep in conversation. They obviously did not want to trespass on the silence created in that last moment of the Tenebrae service.
It was a Good Friday service that will remain in my memory.
- Good Friday The worship space tonight was altarless, draped with black.
Pastor Mark led this Good Friday service, comprised of gospel readings, silences reflections and hymns. Mark and Dena traded as gospel readers. The service’s dark atmosphere took us to the heart of the passion story.
The choir reprieved Jesus, Refuge of the Weary that was sung for Palm Sunday. It provided an interesting link between the two services. Kelly directed this evening’s performance to a different sense of the music and words.
On Palm Sunday the devotional side of this piece was an emphasis. This evening’s performance the gravity went toward the dramatic understanding of God’s will revealed and communicated. There is melancholy in Geoff’s viola solo performance that certainly moved us on Palm Sunday. Tonight, as I looked to Geoff during the performance, a red spotlight reflected off the viola. The glow was astounding. It visually underlined a new sense of the solo as Geoff played it.
Here, suddenly, was the burning, eternal love of God, infused with the music and the voices. The solo was guiding, supporting and leading the performance in a way I did not recognize during the Palm Sunday service.
There are times when there is a strong, almost sentimental aspect to Good Friday and the suffering of Jesus. It comes from the familiar words of the gospels and the familiar hymns. We did sing familiar hymns, Were You There, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, and O Sacred Head, Now Wounded but I did not feel the usual sentiment. This Holy Week changed my perspective, at least, perhaps it changed others' perspectives as well.
During the reverence of the cross my thoughts moved more toward my Christian identity and what, through the events of Good Friday and Easter, who we are all called to become. In reading The Last Week that I mentioned in an earlier entry, the authors point out how the gospel of Mark stressed failed discipleship continually. This thought haunted me when I approached the cross during the service.
Finally, at the end of the service, the waning light obscured the faces of the congregation. I couldn’t read the music in front of me at the end of the service. We sung Were You There a cappella, and said the Lord’s Prayer. Once again, we departed in silence and this time in darkness.
Some choir members practiced a piece for tomorrow’s Easter Vigil after the service. It appeared that everyone had left while we were in the sanctuary but when we finished practicing and walked out of the church I couldn’t believe how many of those who attended this service were still in the parking lot, deep in conversation. They obviously did not want to trespass on the silence created in that last moment of the Tenebrae service.
It was a Good Friday service that will remain in my memory.
posted by Gary at
8:24 PM
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